212 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
a long, dry-toned, unmusical trill, which, from their perch on 
fence or tree, they often repeat during the breeding-season and 
summer. These trills have several variations, which are some- 
times combined, one with a rising inflection being followed by 
a more open one with a reverse inflection. It is said that in- 
dividuals have actually been known to sing, and very sweetly, 
but such cases are wholly exceptional, ‘ et lusus nature.” 
The Chipping Sparrows are “‘so tame as to be fed with 
crumbs from the table,” so fearless of man as to be much fa- 
vored by him, and so common that they may eventually become 
as intimate in our households as certain birds of Europe are in 
those of their country. 
(B) monticota. Tree Sparrow. ‘Arctic Chipper.” 
(In Massachusetts, a winter-resident, generally quite com- 
mon and regular in appearance.) 
(a). About six inches long. (‘* Bill black above, yellow 
below.”) Crown, chestnut, in winter slightly marked. Super- 
ciliary line, dull white; eye-stripe (and maxillary line), dark. 
Interscapulars, bright bay, pale-edged, and black-streaked. 
Rump unmarked; tail, dusky (‘‘ black”) with white edgings. 
Under parts, white. Sides of head, lower throat, and upper 
breast, ashy-tinted ; the latter with a dark central blotch. Sides, 
however, and rarely the whole under parts, brown-washed or 
buffy. Two conspicuous wing-bars, white; part of the wing 
black. Wings otherwise as in socialis, ‘‘in keeping with” the 
back. 
(b). The Tree Sparrows breed in Arctic countries only. 
Their eggs are strikingly like those of the Swamp Sparrow 
and allied species (XIII, C), exhibiting some variation. A 
specimen before me measures about 77 X °55 of an inch, and 
is of a faint and vague blue or green, finely marked with brown 
all over, clouded with umber-brown about the erown, and 
splashed in one or two places with a pale and peculiar tint of 
the same color. Dr. Brewer says that the eggs ‘‘ measure 
8§ Not to be confused with the English Tree Sparrow (XXV). 
